Astros plan tandem pitching in minors again but with a twist

KISSIMMEE, Fla. — The Astros are modifying their tandem pitching system in the minor leagues.

All Astros affiliates are slated to again have eight starting pitchers, who will piggyback starts. Two starters go per game, one after the other, and instead of a typical five-man rotation, the pitchers will be on a four-day schedule.

The Astros put the system in place to help minimize injuries and get their many young starting pitching prospects as much work as possible. But this year, they’re building in a periodic, short break.

“You’re pitching every fourth day, and then after say, the first month, you’ll have pretty much a week or so, five to six days, to kind of work on whatever needs to be worked on,” farm director Quinton McCracken said. “And you get back on the horse and back into the rotation. And that is the modification.”

The rest period will allow the pitchers to focus on whatever they might need to mechanically in side sessions, or to simply rest.

Last year, the inconsistency at the major league level disrupted the tandem system. The team had to dip into its Class AAA reserves early, and that set off a ripple effect.

“Last year it worked itself out around late May, into June,” McCracken said. “We had a lot of movement in the major leagues that affected the Triple-A (roster) which of course affects Double-A. It’s kind of like a chain reaction, for the most part. A lot of bodies moving around. It worked well. Everybody, all the starters at the end of the year, ended up with their innings pitched allotment.”

As the season goes, as some pitchers separate themselves, the Astros can modify things. They could move to a regular five-man rotation, or whatever else they think might work.

“We have that option,” McCracken said. “But right now it’s a tandem — modified tandem — at every level. We’ll just play it by ear. We’re not going to put ourselves in a box with it. Due to injuries, movement, we have that option to dissolve it if … the circumstances call for it.”

While the tandem system may, on the whole, save arms, it can be tough to adjust to for some individuals. Some pitchers are used to pitching every fifth day.

Hard-thrower Mike Foltynewicz didn’t have the easiest time with the system last season, and thought it was possible that his midsummer elbow soreness could have been connected to it.

“I’m sure there is (an element of adjustment),” McCracken said generally. “But baseball’s a game of adjustments. The guys adjusted to that routine.”

When the Astros put the system into place last year, general manager Jeff Luhnow believed his organization was the first to ever do it at the Class AA and AAA levels. Teams had previously used tandems at lower levels.

“I don’t believe that it’s ever been done (in baseball) at the Triple-A and Double-A levels,” Luhnow said in May. “It’s been done at the lower levels. … When I was the Cardinals, we did it at both of the A-ball levels.”